South-East-Asian Pickles: The Topic

[loki]

Well, I did not have great success with growing these types of eggplants.  This year I also cut down on what I grew so did not even try.  So I don't have an update on making these.  I am growing some orange eggplants - variety is called Cookstown Orange - which is a different species (not Solanum melongena, but it's questionable which species it actually is).  I may try to make some version of this with these.

[loki]

I finally have the results...  I used the green cherry tomatoes instead of the eggplants. The texture is different but the taste is there, and it's pretty good. I found Vietnamese recipes out there and I translated and used my pickling knowledge to fill in the mistranslated parts. I also added my own changes to make it suit me. One of the key steps is a natural ferment which produces the sourness (not vinegar - lactic acid fermentation). This is very like my favorite sweet gherkin recipe - except the spices/flavorings are very different!  The original recipes call for red chile, but I had fresh green and used that instead.  I think I could make the other types of this condiment based on this recipe - some have shrimp, some soy products, etc.

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/149474-vietnamese-pickled-eggplant/

[Smithy]

Thanks so much for persevering, and for posting your results! 

 

Question: if using green cherry tomatoes instead of the little white eggplants (admittedly rare), do you still pierce and/or cut the tomatoes, or leave them whole?